IOM Equine held its fourth annual prize presentation ball at the Best Western Hotel & Casino in Douglas recently.

The event was sponsored by Evoke.im and attracted more than 250 guests who enjoyed an evening of celebrating local excellence organised by IOM Equine which is a social media page dedicated to the coverage of equestrian events.

For the first time, tickets were available online and they sold out in less than one hour. The evening started with IOM Equine’s Paul Hatton giving a quick opening speech before Suzanne Corlett spoke about how the guests could enter a fund-raiser for next year’s fifth anniversary in a ’heads-or-tails’ game later in the evening organised by Jennie Cryer.

The guests enjoyed a carvery meal before the announcement of prizes. Each of the 10 equine disciplines were recognised, with the mounted games being replaced by an IOM Equine Choice award. There were also additional non-discipline awards.

The winners were

as follows:

Carriage driving - Francesca Charmer and Sharon Maternaghan; Arena eventing - Grace Wolstencroft and Lola-Bea Bryce; Eventing - Sue Kirkpatrick and Amelia Easthope; Hunting - Ellan Charmer; Showjumping - Lindsay Collister and Macie Murphy; Dressage - Emily Kelly and James Mister; Polo - Kevin Valente; Showing - Sophie van Hooven and Caitlyn Hughes; TREC - Georgia Smith and Jo Ralston; IOM Equine Choice - Ruby Corkish and Isla Caine.

The non-discipline awards were as follows:

Pony of the Year - Conrhenny Princess Bee; Horse of the Year - Eragon Von der Held; Most improved junior - Emily Corrin; Most improved senior - Ashley Foulds Outstanding Performance - Abby Corlett; Special recognition - Ian Moore; Volunteer of the Year - Becka Scott;

It was a pleasure to have MHK David Ashford in attendance again who presented Abby Corlett with her outstanding performance award which was kindly sponsored by Epico Equestrian.

IOM Equine director Amy Rothwell then gave a huge thank you to the sponsors and those who assisted with this year’s event.

Evoke.im have been with IOM Equine from day one, they are a pleasure to work with and the social media page feels extremely lucky to have had the private mortgage company headline the event for the last four years.

NFU Mutual and Cu-Plas have also been on board from year one and they will hopefully they will continue to work with IOM Equine in the future.

Country Paving and Ornamental were on board for a third year, while Libby Priest Equine Dentistry came back for a second year to sponsor the dressage category.

Organisers welcomed three new sponsors this year - Connect 2 Accounting, Woodward Autobody and Centaur-Line Equestrian - so thanks go to them. CJS Photography has continued to support the event and was very helpful when it came to online ticket sales through the website built by Callum Staley.

IOM Equine would also like to thank DJ Nick Exton who is a huge part of the IOM Equine team and also to the following: JM Dressage, Cyclo-Ssage, Epico Equestrian, Country Warehouse and the Palace staff for serving a wonderful carvery and again going above and beyond.